What have you done for your bike today????

[knowles]

Took the newer tank off to get ready for bead blasting, and paint, put all the pluming on the old tank, but left if off. Made a portable gas holder for running the bike with the gas tank off. waiting for valve shim tool to get here and see what shims i need to replace. then on to the carbs if problems not fixed.

[shonole]

Rode to the future in-laws for a steak dinner, then enjoyed a beautiful moonlit ride back home. 

[adidasguy]

Put new front caliper on Trey. There was a small leak from somewhere so I just put on a 2009 and will look at the 1994 one later (looked like just the bleeder thingy).

Phenix got a MosFet regulator installed. Also replaced tank petcock. There was a minor leak around the washer on the mounting bolt so I just put on a newer one since I had it.

Doing a Vashon ISland ride tomorrow (well, today since it is after midnight). Deciding who to take on the ride. While I'd like to ride Phenix, he only has 40 or so miles on the tires so probably need to wear them in a little more before doing twisties. So maybe Junior will get the ride. I've ridden Suzi on twisties but Junior just begs to do it.
Am I right in not riding Phenix until over 100 miles on the tires?

[adidasguy]

Killed Junior.

Yep - must have over stressed the old guy and something is wrong. I don't I should here metal banging around and hitting the inside of the valve cover. Have to wait for him to cool down and will drain the tank, remove it and then the valve cover.

I started a thread on the rebuild of Junior in the projects area.

Junior: 1992-2012 RIP

We will rebuild you - we have the technology!

[zute72]

Polished, all shiny, then went for a two hours back roads ride! 

[25knots]

Refurbished both left and right lower engine covers.  Started by removing the circular right side stater cover (easy) and applied airplane stripper to remove the old paint.  Man does that stuff work well!  10 minutes later all the old paint had bubbled off and just needed to be wiped away.The stator cover had gotten a decent scraping when a friend of mine dropped the bike a couple days ago, so that's why it was being refurbished. While that was going on, I got started on the left side generator cover, which required removing the sprocket cover as well.  I'd had a slow speed low side crash five months ago and it had done some cosmetic damage to the generator cover and taken off the Suzuki decal.  So on went more airplane stripper.  Then each cover got a good sanding with some metal specific sandpaper.  That did a great job taking out the big scratches and gouges, and after a little work both surfaces looked shiny and smooth. 

Time for paint.  Each cover got a decent helping of plastikote Engine paint, glossy black, and rated for 500 degrees F.  I'd played with this stuff before and, though it calls for a primer, it doesn't seem to require it.  I'll find out over time if it doesn't hold up well.  I also discovered that one coat is really all it needs.  In fact, the more coats you put on, the less shiny the paint gets and the more it starts to wrinkle.  This could probably be avoided by waiting longer intervals between coats, but I'm impatient.

Left the paint to dry and started with the day's other project, installing a center stand.  This was pretty easy until it was time to mount the spring that keeps it retracted.  Man did I have to fight that thing into place.  But it got done and works great.  Now that I can keep the rear wheel in the air, I decided to celebrate by degreasing and then lubing the chain; so much easier on the center stand.  BTW, got a really good nick used centerstand from Pinwall off ebay, for something under 10 bucks.  Totally worth it.

Then, and this was probably the best part of the project, I stuck on a couple of new OEM Suzuki engine decals I bought from bike bandit.  They're just the black bacground, silver logo, basic ones, but the engine looks so much better with them on, instead of the old beat up and scraped ones I had there before.  Really sweet.

So now, I'm just waiting for the left side cover to dry so I can put it and the sprocket cover back on.  Doesn't look like i'll make it out for a ride tonight, but i'm exhausted anyway.  Fun, productive day!

[stroztech]

Halfway between Bordertown and Keith last night after picking up the baton for the GS500 Around Australia Relay... all ones!



That's 6,904.1 miles for those playing along at home 

[knowles]

made sure it was still in the garage, went to work. what fun

[slipperymongoose]

Put my new rego sticker on, admired it for a minute then cursed the rain god for raining. Then went back to bed.

[Twisted]

Put my new rego sticker on, admired it for a minute then cursed the rain god for raining. Then went back to bed.

What colour are they next year?

[adidasguy]

Since Junior is busted, I moved his R&G sliders to Phenix. Had to remove them anyway to get the busted motor out of Junior. I guess they look good on Phenix. I do have another set on order so Junior will get sliders after being fixed.

[slipperymongoose]

Put my new rego sticker on, admired it for a minute then cursed the rain god for raining. Then went back to bed.

What colour are they next year?

Blue, but I only topped up 6 months, need to space my car n bike rego out so im not hit with alot of bills at once.

[mister]

Put my new rego sticker on, admired it for a minute then cursed the rain god for raining. Then went back to bed.

What colour are they next year?

Blue, but I only topped up 6 months, need to space my car n bike rego out so im not hit with alot of bills at once.

I got my 919 and Car rego in the same month 

[slipperymongoose]

Yeah I'm spreading my load out

[solo]

Took Sheba for a ride, put her solo seat on and gave her a bath..
By solouno at 2012-04-29

[angusgst]

Following on from replacing the front wheel bearings and getting a new rear tyre...

Replaced front wheel
Oil and filter
Cleaned five years of dirt-oil gunk out from under the sprocket cover
Oiled the chain
Found another noise to ponder over



Oh yeah... and drained the battery by leaving the ignition on, then tried to push start it down the hill in first, pushed it back up the hill, and only then realised I needed it in neutral to pick up sufficient speed.

[bombsquad83]

Flushed my brake system for the first time.  Ahh...nice and clean fluid.

[Fry]

It's been far to long since I have done anything to the GS500E Street Fighter project, so this weekend I set out to complete the next project on the list.

I needed to fab up a metal box that would sit between the rails of the rear sub-frame, this box is to hold all of the electronics, wiring, and stuff of that nature.

I bought 4 large sheets of Cardboard, got out my T-Square, Rulers, and Pencils and began making a template. I wanted to make as complete of a template as I could, to minimize having to tack in filler pieces of metal into the corners. Being that there are triangle gussets in the corners of the Sub-frame, and them not being flush with the tops or bottoms of the rails, getting everything drawn out was quite the task, all I can say is that I really should have paid more attention in math and mechanical drawing classes in High School. By making the complete pattern here, and just having to cut and bend up the corners, I'll only have 8 seams to weld, it will come out pretty flush in the corners rather than trying to make the box out of numerous pieces and then try and tack them all into position, to much hassle, this way seemed and hopefully will be easier and deliver better results.

It took me all 4 sheets of Cardboard to get to a pattern that fit almost spot on.

Being that this box will be water tight once welded up, it eliminates the need for me to run a rear fender, well I will make a super small one to mount forward of the rear tire, in the shape of a clam shell to protect the rear shock and other items, but with this box I won't have to run a really noticeable and obtrusive rear fender.

Here is the template all drawn out on cardboard.



Finished cutting the pattern out.



Starting to bend up the sides and flanges.



Looks like a Banana Boat, LOL.



This is where the box will drop into.





Here the template/box is dropped in for test fitment.



Here is a back view, still positioned a bit out of square. Being that the nature of this box will have 2 angled sides and a flush middle section, when viewed from behind, it will give me a cool spot to mount my LED Directional's to either side, then the brake light LED's in the center.





The fit is acceptable to me.











Now all I need to do is take the pattern back out, lay it flat on some sheet metal, transfer the pattern to metal, cut it out, bend the Front, Back, Sides and mounting flanges, test fit it, then weld up the corners, metal finish the welds, and affix it in. Then I can go about laying out all the wiring, electronics and relays within the box. Once that's done I do believe I can actually start the bike up. After that there will be a million other little issues and projects to get it ride-able and street worthy.

[zute72]

Took Sheba for a ride, put her solo seat on and gave her a bath..
By solouno at 2012-04-29

Ooooooooo......very nice! 

[zute72]

All clean and wiped down! Put the raincoat on, even though she is under a carport, cause its gonna be rainy allllll week.  Dang Seattle weather!!